Our new au pair from spain has brought with her a game called MIKADO
which consists of several thin wooden sticks painted in different
ways. She says that you drop them in a pile then attempt to remove
them one at a time without disturbing any others in the pile. What are
the exact rules - and do the coloured bands on the sticks have any
meaning?

Mikado is the foreign version of the old pioneer times game, "pick up
sticks". In this game, the object of the game is to put all of the
sticks down in a pile, and then choose a color (with other players
choosing different colors). Much like Jenga, except instead of wooden
blocks, you have sticks, the player must remove his/her colored sticks
witihout disturbing the others (i.e. causing them to fall, move,
etc.). The colors are for multiple players, although some versions of
the game have you assign arbitrary point values to the various colors
and then you may try for any of the sticks and not just one color,
adding up points until you get to a certain amount, or you disturb the
pile. In some versions of this game, you may receive a colored dice as
well, which randomizes the color you must pull, increasing the
difficulty.


Additional Links:

Buy giant version of pick up sticks:
http://www.shoptheshops.com/Deptsub_KS_CrePlaTod.asp

Buy "Party Sticks" which is just like Mikado but with the colored die:
http://www.kidcore.com/partysticks.htm

Mikado computer graphics algorithm (see section 3.7):
http://www.ie.bgu.ac.il/cimsite/cim/research/uri_research.htm


Search Strategy:

"pick up sticks" colored rules on google:
://www.google.com/search?q=%22pick+up+sticks%22+colored+rules


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